Swear to a Soul
by PowerOfPens
Summary: When everyone reached the surface, six children didn't. But they left marks on the world in the forms of promises. This is a tale of six promises made to six incredible children. Will they be kept?
1. Patience

"Help! Help! Help!" Patience called from the patch of golden flowers.

This was not how she wanted this stroll to go.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey the Flower. Would you mind getting off me?"

"Ahhh!" She scrambled away, flailing her limbs wildly.

"Woah! Calm down there. You must be new to the underground! Golly, you must be so scared, you poor thing."

"I got lost. I must have fallen, but I'm sure my teacher will find me very soon."

Patience was only seven. She was a very polite girl, but very naïve. She reached up and retied the faded red ribbon in her brown hair. She was very scared but her mom had taught her to be polite, so she stared at the flower in the eyes.

"I know a way to get you to the surface!"

"Thank you very much Mr. Flowey, but my mom always says that if I get lost, I should stay put."

"You're just going to sit there and wait." The flower's voice had turned cruel. She nodded.

"YOU FOOL!" Flowey engaged her in battle surrounding her in bullets. She pulled a small toy knife from her pocket, but she didn't know how to use it. Then right when all hope seemed lost, a kindly voice rang out.

"What are you doing to that poor child?"

When Patience opened her eyes, she was confronted with a goat monster at least three times her height. Flowey was gone.

"Hello… Ms." Her legs trembled but she didn't want to offend this woman.

"No need for such formalities, my girl. My name is Toriel, guardian of the ruins. Did you fall?" Her voice immediately put Patience at ease. This woman reminded her of her mother.

"Yes Ms. Toriel. Our class was walking up Mount Ebott, but the others where being noisy so I waited until they all passed. Then, I don't know how I fell."

"Oh, dear girl, come with me to my home. I can keep you safe there."

"But Ms. Toriel, I have to stay here so my teacher can find me."

"Well… mmm… I suppose we could come back. Every so often, to see if they've arrived."

"Well, ok."

"That's a beautiful knife, you have there."

"My daddy carved it for me. He even put my name on it."

"Claire? That's a beautiful name."

Patience returned to the flower patch ever day with hope. She started on her path home a little earlier every day. She made friends with a frogitt who taught her a lot about monsters and their history. But Claire was never destined for a long life. One day, she set out to her friend Frogitt usual spot near the view of the castle to ask him something.

"Frogitt, could you something for me when I die?"

"Ribitt. (Why would you say that? Are you going to die?)"

"Without my medicine, yes. And that's why I need a favor."

"Ribitt. (What do you need?)"

"I know Ms. Toriel won't do it. So, I want you to bring my soul to the king."

"RIBITT! (WHAT!)"

"Look, once I die, I won't be needing the soul anymore. And I know what it feels like to wait to go home. So, I want to help shorten the wait for all the good monsters like you. I'm dead either way."

"Rib… Rib… (That's very nice of you. I promise I'll take your soul to King Asgore.)"

"And could you tell my mom and my daddy that it's okay if they gave up. Some people don't like waiting."

"Bitt? (What will you do till then?)"

"I'll wait."

The king of the mountain had a shock on the day five Frogitts from the ruins hoped into the throne room. Four carried the body of a little girl, one glowed light blue from the soul he had taken. All of them cried. All of them looked offended when they were offered a reward.

"Ribitt! Ribitt! Ribitt! (How dare you act like her death is a victory? She died waiting for parents that gave up trying to find her! I'm only giving you her soul because she asked me to deliver it to you!)"

Ashamed, the king toke the soul and placed it in a containment vessel.

Frogitt knew he had to keep the second part of his promise to Claire. He would find her parents and have a chat.


	2. Bravery

Bravery could handle himself. Still, he was thankful for the extra protection the tough gloves gave him. He needed to find Claire. Toriel had known her, but was extremely evasive when he asked where he could find her. So, he had snuck out the door to the rest of the underground. Snow crunched under his feet, as he moved his bandana from his head to his neck to keep out the wind.

"Freeze, kiddo."

Bravery fell into a fighting stance.

"Who said that?"

"Chill, kid. Play ice with me. I'll have you snow, I'm very powerful."

Bravery yelped as he was suspended in the air a foot above the ground.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A human? Very interesting…" The skeleton stepped out form the shadow of the trees, his left eye glowing blue.

Bravery frowned.

"Are you… trying to intimidate me? I think you kind of killed that with the puns."

"You don't seem very threatening either."

"I'm not trying to be."

"Good point, kiddo."

"I'm eighteen."

"Nice to meet you, eighteen. I'm Sans."

"My name is Jeremy."

"You introduced yourself with an alias? How rude."

"You know what I meant."

"Sure, kid."

The conversation lulled as Sans walked around Jeremy, inspecting him. Finally, the boy spoke up.

"Are you going to kill me now?"

"No, that's not my job. I'm a sentry. I just had to catch you. I put in a call to the captain. He said he was going to send his trainee to come collect you."

Silence fell again.

"If I promise not to run away, will you put me down. My legs are getting numb."

"Ok. I'm almost off shift anyway, we can meet her halfway."

Bravery was lowered onto the snow and the pair walked towards the town.

"Sans! Sans!" A very short skeleton ran up Sans and threw his arms around his hips.

"Hey, Pap. How was school?"

"I got a fifty percent on my science test and my teacher said she was going to call you. It must be because she wants you to know how amazing I was."

"Then she'll be wasting her time since I already know that. Look, Papyrus, I need to go talk to the captain. Till I come back, go follow Doge on her patrol and she'll bring you home. Tell her I'll cover one of her shifts to make up for it and I ought tibia back late."

"I shall tell her without making her angry with puns!" The small skeleton ran off, and Jeremy thought it was cute how Sans smiled at him as he left.

"Papyrus?" Bravery asked.

"My little brother, isn't he awesome?"

Silence weighed heavier than before, as Jeremy seemed to be contemplating something.

"What's gotten in your skull, kiddo?"

"Could I… ask you for something?"

"That depends what it is."

The duo started along the long bridge to Snowdin Town, as it waved wildly up and down. Sans had expected the kid to be terrified and need to be teleported across, but he kept talking as he went on.

"I… I have a little brother. He's the best. I was thinking we could make a deal or something. I'll go with you quietly; I won't make a fuss. In exchange you promise that when the monsters are free, you'll find Mitchel and protect him. Make sure he's ok."

"Look, kid. Monsters are at war with humans. I probably shouldn't make a promise to one."

"Don't think of it like that! Think of it as a promise from one older brother to another. Please, I know you understand. The only thing I want is for him to be alright."

"What if… I refused?"

"I'm pretty though, but I know I can't beat you. You weren't lying about being powerful. If you weren't confident in your powers, you wouldn't have let me walk free. I'm going to die down here, but I can make it awful for you. Trust me I can be very annoying. Please, Mitch deserves a good life. Please!"

"If you were so worried about you brother, why did you climb Mt. Ebott?"

"That girl, Claire, who fell down here a couple moths ago. Her parents offered four thousand dollars for any information about her death. I thought if I could find something about her, I could get the reward and…"

"And."

"Mitch is a really good musician, and there's good music school near our home. It's his dream."

"Papyrus' dream is to join the royal guard someday. I pick up lots of shifts under the table as a sentry to convince the guards to entertain him. I'm exhausted sometimes, but it's all worth it to see him smile like that."

"What if you were up there on the surface? And all the humans wanted to kill you and storm the underground? Wouldn't you do anything to keep Papyrus safe?"

"Yes. Alright, kid. I promise."

"Oh, thank you!" Jeremy jumped forward and smothered the skeleton in a hug. Until a spear, shot between their heads making Jeremy stumble backwards. An inch to the right and it would have cleaved through Sans's skull. An inch to the left and Jeremy would have lost his eye.

"SANS! Stop fraternizing with the enemy!" A fish girl, about the height of Sans' shoulder, ran from the direction of the town. She held a glowing electric blue spear and a gaze that could power a generator.

"Sure. Jeremy, this is Undyne. She's being trained by Geryon, Captain of the royal guard."

"BUT I KNOW ENOUGH TO KICK YOUR BUTT!"

"Whoa! I'm cooperating! You don't need to spear me."

"So, you're afraid!"

"No."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

Jeremy didn't flinch as Undyne stuck her face in his.

"I said I'm not scared. I'd rather you didn't spear me, but if you're expecting me to cower, you've got another thing coming."

"WAS THAT A THREAT?"

"No, if I threatened you, I'd be dead."

"UHMM, WELL, Come with me human! Sans, you're free to go home."

Sans had been only too happy to watch the exchange between the two, but he spoke up.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather see this to the end. We can take a shortcut."

"Fine." Undyne relented and the group walked into the nearest wall.

They were in the throne room where a tall furry goat King sat on the throne.

"King Asgore! Sentry Sans reported a human. I went to investigate and I found them! KNELL HUMAN!"

Jeremy took a knee before the king.

"Well done, Undyne. You may spread the word to the monsters of the underground. We are a step closer to freedom." The king's voice was strained.

"Yes, sir." Undyne left.

"Thank you for your service, Sentry Sans. You're dismissed from duty for the week. Have a holiday! You may receive a promotion for this."

"No." Sans' voice was flat.

"I'm… sorry."

"With all due respect your highness, this was not my victory. It was not even A victory. It's us mercilessly tearing apart a family and a little boy's dreams. I can't accept a promotion for this. I did my duty, but that's it."

The king bowed his head.

"Are you going to kill me or what? I'm getting bored."

"Umm, well, uh. If… if you have any… any unfinished business, now would be the time."

"Unfinished business?" Jeremy stood and faced Sans. "I wouldn't say I've been annoying, so your end of the bargain should hold."

"I'll make sure he's ok, I promise. And I'm sorry."

"You've done a ton for me, a skele-ton." Jeremy knelt again, smiling. Sans chuckled.

King Asgore raised his trident, but hesitated to bring it down. The throne room stilled in tense silence.

"I… I can't." Asgore's voice rang with pain.

Bravery's head snapped up.

"You can't. You have hundreds of people counting on you and you can't."

He stood and turned to Sans.

"Can you please? I'd rather not die at the hands of a miserable sniveling coward."

Sans raised his hand and a bone shot forwards and logged in his chest. As Jeremy fell forward, blue magic lowered him slowly to the floor. Sans knelt by his dying body.

"I'm sorry, kid."

With one last breath, Bravery smiled and said.

"Don't worry, Ma. I left him in good hands."

Sans stood, his blue jacket almost purple from blood, and left the throne room without saying a word.

He had made a promise, from one brother to another. He intended to keep it.


End file.
